The Schuylkill County Recycling Program will end by the end of December.
Earlier this year, the Schuylkill County Commissioners announced they would be ending the County Recycling Program citing costs.
The current program collected cardboard, plastics, paper, glass, and aluminum at no expense to the county citizens and transferred it to the County's drop off location in Port Carbon, where it was then transferred to a Recycling Center.
County Commissioner Barron Hetherington said during an October meeting that they were ending the current program due to the county losing approximately $45,000 a month.
During this past Wednesday's work session of the Schuylkill County Commissioners, the final dates of pickup were discussed.
The topic came up during an agenda item that was motioned and approved to award the job of dismantling the Port Carbon Drop Off Center to MEI Demo and Excavation Inc. for $8,000.
Commissioner Hetherington commented on the item citing he received multiple calls from people asking for the final day of the program. Hetherington said he talked to Lisa Mahall, from the Office of Solid Waste & Recycling, and shared from their conversation:
"We still needs to get in contact with the folks involved and make arrangements to pickup the current recyclables and bins by our crew. We can't say this day or that day, but by the end of the year, we should be out the recycling business and the center should be shut down", Commissioner Hetherington said.
"The process will be very coordinated and after the bins are emptied out, then we can make arrangements to have the bins removed", County Administrator Gary Bender said.
No specific dates were announced for each borough or township of the county, but residents should expect their bins to be removed by mid December.
After the bins are removed, it will be the responsibility of each municipality and township to provide their own recycling program through their trash service.
Municipalities like Ashland, Ringtown, and Ryan Township, have used and depended on the county program but have not announced how they will handle recycling going forward.
Under a new ordinance, voted on by the Schuylkill County Commissioners during an October meeting, beginning in 2021, all trash companies serving Schuylkill County will be required to provide recycling pickup for their customers. This may in turn force the trash companies to raise their pickup prices going forward, but we will wait to see what happens in 2021.